Advertisements are often provided via a network, e.g., displayed on web pages via the internet. As network capabilities have grown during recent years, so has the ability of various types of entities to effectively market their services and/or products using network resources. Typically, the advertisements are managed through the use of a system that may be accessible by advertisers, publishers, consultants, and/or other third parties.
Advertisement systems allow users to create advertisement accounts through which the users may in turn create advertisements, specify keywords, bid on keywords, coordinate billing activity, oversee the activity related to campaigns and advertisements created under the account, monitor various performance parameters, etc. Advertisement systems may also allow, among other things, advertisers to create and manage advertisements to be placed on web pages published by other entities (e.g., publishers), and conversely, allow publishers to offer their web pages to be used as hosts for advertisements created and managed by others (e.g., advertisers).
Because of the wide variety of activities that are related to creating and managing advertisement accounts, it is often desirable for advertisers and publishers to allow more than one user to access their accounts. For example, in an effort to maximize the return on the investment in advertising activity, an advertiser may choose to hire an external consultant (e.g., a search engine marketer) to assist in the design of the advertisement, the choice of keywords, the bid amounts, etc. The advertiser may therefore want the consultant to be able to access the advertisement account. The advertiser may also have various internal personnel that require access to the account, including marketing personnel to coordinate activities with the consultant, and finance personnel to arrange for bill payment. It may be desirable to provide other internal and/or external users with the ability to access the advertisement account.
An ongoing need exists for systems and methods that facilitate providing multiple users access to, an account, such as an advertising account. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-identified needs.